Review: Apple MacBook (2016)

 

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The most portable Mac retains the thin and light profile that mobile workers and frequent travellers appreciate and becomes  a better vessel for many of  the upcoming macOS Sierra features.

Notebooks and laptops are some of the most important and most personal devices we have today, yet for some reason, these devices seem somewhat stunted in terms of their evolution. Sure, they’re more powerful, new 2-in-1 paradigms have made them versatile for users who want a tablet as well, but for the most part many of the updates and new features seem incremental.

Learning a lot from making iPhones and iPad, Apple created the MacBook to usher in the next phase of personal computing in the notebook and laptop form factor but nothing about the MacBook is common to what’s in the market today.

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Tape measure gets smart with Bagel

It’s no surprise that even tape measures are getting tagged “smart.” This time, a new Kickstarter project by Bagel Labs is hoping you back this smart tape measure called Bagel. The measuring device offers three measure modes, saves your measurements, records voice memos, and syncs all these data with a companion mobile app.

You can use it in string mode to get measurements that you would with a regular analog tool. It can do this for up to 10 feet. It also comes with a strong Dyneema string so it can withstand up to 112lbs. Aside from that, wheel mode will let you roll it on its side to measure curved distances with one hand. Meanwhile, remote mode has a laser pointer to measure horizontal and vertical distances. To snag one of these Bagels, you can pledge US$59 to get the unit with an accompanying micro-USB cable. This gives roughly a 45 percent discount off its estimated suggested retail price.

Source: Engadget

Evernote to limit free accounts to two devices, raise prices for paying accounts

Moving on to more news about notetaking apps. This time, though, this might not be something you’d want to hear. Evernote is dialing back access to free users (a.k.a. Basic accounts) and just allowing access to it from two devices. Aside from that, they’re also raising prices for Plus and Premium price tiers for new subscribers. For Basic users, you have “at least 30 days” to work out which devices you’ll have working with your account. You can check this link to remove or manage the devices associated with your Evernote account.

As for the price hike, it seems not all users will be affected but you will be notified if you are. Plus plans jump to US$34.99 per year or $3.99 per month (from the previous $2.99) and Premium plans jump to $69.99 per year or $7.99 per month (from the previous $5.99). Evernote said plainly that they’re doing this to help maintain the quality of service they offer.

Source: Evernote

Google Keep update automatically arranges notes by topic

Google’s free note-taking app is getting more and more intuitive. The app now instantly arranges your notes according to topic, such as food, quotes, books, etc., and then lets you search by keyword. It’s a simple way to organize what can be a jumble of notes if you use the service religiously. It’s coming to both the iOS and Android apps as well as on the web version of Keep.

#GoogleKeep organized. Search automagically created topics like books, food and quotes for @Android, iPhones and web pic.twitter.com/wccSbThYpQ

— Google Docs (@googledocs) June 29, 2016

Source: The Verge